Cindy Wolf and Spike Gjerde are James Beard award semifinalists

Photographed in her home, Cindy Wolf is a finalist for the 2014 James Beard Foundation awards for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic.

Photographed in her home, Cindy Wolf is a finalist for the 2014 James Beard Foundation awards for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic. (Sarah Pastrana / Patuxent Publishing)

Richard GorelickThe Baltimore Sun

The James Beard Foundation announced the list of restaurant and chef semifinalists for the 2014 James Beard Foundation Awards, and Cindy Wolf of Charleston and Spike Gjerde of Woodberry Kitchen are among the 20 semifinalists for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic, one of 10 regional categories.

Both chefs have been on the semi-finalists list before, and each has made it to the finalist round, Wolf in 2006 and 2008, and Gjerde in 2013.

The five finalists in each category will be announced on March 18 and the winners will be announced on May 5.

The James Beard Foundation Awards were established in 1990. Marylanders have had rare success. The Monkton wine expert Robert Parker won for Outstanding Wine and Spirits Professional in 1999 and the bygone restaurant Maison Marconi received a James Beard Foundation "America's Classics award" in 2002 for locally owned restaurants open at least 10 years.